What is now the status of 424 PCIE card in a Thunderbolt enclosure

[cyril]

Hello
I have all my Motu interfaces crying in a box on the side of my music desk. (2408 MK2 and MK3, 1296)
They would love to be used by a 424 PCIe in a Thunderbolt enclosure.
Is it possible now ?
Best
Cyril

[James Steele]

I’m pretty sure it is not possible and not likely to change. From what I understand it would require a firmware update to the card and they’re not flashable.

[mikehalloran]

What James said—not possible and there's no workaround.

MOTU would have to make a new version of the 424 card that's compatible with the 2019 and current Mac Pros 7.1 and 8.1. The 424 cards and interfaces were discontinued ten years ago.

Besides 2012 and earlier Macs, there are PCs running Windows with compatible slots.

[cyril]

It's pity because Motu is loosing clients, like me

[HCMarkus]

It's pity because Motu is loosing clients, like me

Don't forget, you can still use the interfaces in sand-alone mode as converters if you have any Litepipe I/O on whatever interface you end up buying.

So maybe all your old MOTU units won't have to be crying.

[mikehalloran]

It's pity because Motu is loosing clients, like me

Really?

They're losing you because of hardware that was discontinued eleven years ago that last worked on a Mac also discontinued the same year? Uhhhh... not much of a threat, is it?

I believe that ship has already sailed.

[jjplosay3]

Can you explain how to utilize older hardware further?

I had a setup with a 2408mk3 and two 24i/o interfaces (used with several rack synths). Due to life circumstances it all went into storage for 15 years but I recently got it setup again. I understand the 424 PCI ship has sailed but I see other hardware interfaces/cards that use the ADAT lightpipe. Is there a way to use a different interface and have it link to my older hardware? How would it be recognized in Digital Performer or CueMix?

I apologize for the noob-ish quality of this question but I am kind of starting over in my home studio. Any suggestions or help would be appreciated.

Rack.jpg (2.04 MiB) Viewed 3258 times

[HCMarkus]

You should be able to use the MOTU 2408 as a stand-alone 8 channel converter, as it has optical I/O. See pages 7, 50, 57 of the manual:

https://cdn-data.motu.com/manuals/pci-a ... de_Mac.pdf

I don't believe the 24i/o is going to work for you, however; it has no optical I/O.

Any audio interface with an optical input port should allow you to connect the 2408. Assuming you have a newer computer, the new 828 (5th gen) would be a great choice for an audio interface, and if you can get by with 18 analog inputs, the 2408-828 pairing would be a very good one. With this setup, you would not use Cue Mix to control the 2408; you'd use the new variant that runs the 828 to handle all Cue Mix functions.

[mikehalloran]

Can you explain how to utilize older hardware further?
…

You should be able to use the MOTU 2408 as a stand-alone 8 channel converter, as it has optical I/O. See pages 7, 50, 57 of the manual:

https://cdn-data.motu.com/manuals/pci-a ... de_Mac.pdf

I don't believe the 24i/o is going to work for you, however; it has no optical I/O.

Any audio interface with an optical input port should allow you to connect the 2408. Assuming you have a newer computer, the new 828 (5th gen) would be a great choice for an audio interface, and if you can get by with 18 analog inputs, the 2408-828 pairing would be a very good one. With this setup, you would not use Cue Mix to control the 2408; you'd use the new variant that runs the 828 to handle all Cue Mix functions.

I used my 2408 as a stand alone front end Analog/ADAT converter to my ancient FOSTEX FD8 — only way it could record or playback 8 discrete tracks.

The 2408 does not have CueMix, unfortunately — that's part of the 424 card. The first gen 828 does but won't run in stand-alone. It can still connect to a Mac using the driver found for the 828mk3 Hybrid under downloads—even Apple Silicon over Sonoma. An adapter or three may be required but it does work as I verified yesterday on my own M2 Studio.

[erodrigues]

I know this is a old thread but I am running a LGgram with Thunderbolt 4 port.
I used both a OWC Mercury Helios FX 550 and now a OWC Mercury Helios 3S and with both I can get the PCIe 424 to be detected and drivers installed successfully.

[HCMarkus]

Interesting! Thanks for sharing this.

[mikehalloran]

I know this is an old thread but I am running a LGgram with Thunderbolt 4 port.
…

On a Mac?

[erodrigues]

I know this is an old thread but I am running a LGgram with Thunderbolt 4 port.
…

On a Mac?

No, on a Windows PC.

My post mentions "LGgram with Thunderbolt 4 port" and screenshots of Device Manager and Intel Thunderbolt Center.

The Thunderbolt implementation might be different in macOS hardware but it should actually be transparent because the hardware makes a "invisible" bridge between the real PCIe and the Thunderbolt controller. After all, Thunderbolt uses the PCI Express (PCIe) protocol for data transfer.

[HCMarkus]

No, on a Windows PC.

If you can get this working on a Mac, you will change many lives in a very positive way.

[erodrigues]

No, on a Windows PC.

If you can get this working on a Mac, you will change many lives in a very positive way.

I think that the key element here is the original PCIe driver for macOS which I suspect it is developed for Intel x86/x64 Intel CPUs therefore I believe that it should work on Intel based Mac but guaranteed not to work on Apple Silicon CPUs.